To Sochi and Back - and then Home from Russia
Wow… so I have somehow managed to go a month without updating again. I really want to write a post talking about this month, for it really was interesting and worth talking about, but I have the feeling that writing such an entry would take another month and would be too long to wade through… Anyway, so I began an entry about Sochi and I’ll leave it as it is, then I’ll switch to bullet-point lists to cover everything else. Hopefully, after this I will actually get back to writing normally in the blog… So, here we go!
Sochi was great ! It’s a nice city to vacation to - don’t know if I’d like to live there but a lovely place to visit. We had a wonderful time there, albeit too short! And now we are back in Moscow. We return to the USA on May 15th - really early, around 7 am. We are to meet to go to the airport at 3 AM! So we really only have 5 more days here in Moscow. Before packing and getting ready to go home, though, I should attempt to post about the last two weeks or so. In all likelihood I’ll get caught up in packing and won’t finish this until the plane ride home, but here I am, starting at 9:01 AM on May 10th. (Jenny’s 18th birthday, yay!)
So, Sochi. Where to begin? Well, we met at Kazanskii Boksal (one of the 3 train stations off of Konsomolskaya metro) at 7 AM, I think, and then our train left around 8h30. We had platzkart seats, or rows of bunks all in one car with no deviders between compartments. All the same the beds themselves divided the car into sections of four. On the way up I shared my compartment with Samantha and two Russian girls, Masha and Natasha.
When we got into the train for the first while everyone wanted to sleep - turns out nobody had gotten much sleep the night before. So we slept - even I tried to nap and may have slept a little bit. Eventually people woke up. I spent some time talking with Mark W. and Nick, as well as Jack and Lindsay, Jack’s girlfriend. In the evening, I played a game called “Farkel,” (which I first understood as Farfel, LOL!) with … a lot of people, Bethany, Daniel, Sarah L., Kelly… and other people kept popping in and out so I don’t really remember who was actually playing. Anyway it’s a game where you roll dice and certain combinations make you win points but then if you roll certain small numbers of dice and aren’t lucky you can lose everything. So it is possible to win the game slowly and steadily, not taking too many chances, which is what I did. :p Bethany is the expert of winning big and then losing her win at the very end. Kelly was just unlucky in her rolls and decided to blame her ill luck on Daniel, so we had an elaborate system of who should and who shouldn’t blow on the dice before she rolls so as to give her better luck! LOL.
In the evening people started drinking a lot. I was really tired, having not really been able to sleep in the daytime and also not having much slept the night before, so I went to bed around 9:30. Some people decided to, like, party in our compartment so they sat on my bed even though I was sleeping in it and some girls actually sat on my feet! I kicked them out but then they came back. The lights went out at eleven and after that people pretty much lay down and went to sleep.
I woke up around seven AM on Saturday and sat with Daniel and Galina Mikhailovna. We drank coffee and ate some poppyseed roll that I’d brought as well as other things, I don’t remember. I felt pretty lively then, but then we got off the train and I felt sleepy and dirty, LOL, unwashed… We arrived in Sochi around 8h30, so we were on the train for essentially an entire day!
We couldn’t go straight to the hotel, so we took a bus tour around Sochi, visiting a sulphur spring and the marina, as well as a church and some statues. We also visited a park - it’s a lot like the park in Varna, Bulgaria, that Tsveti and Petya and I hung out in. There’s no lake or water, but there were lots of amusement park attractions. There was also a guy who had trained pigeons to land on peoples’ hands!
We got to the hotel at around noon and had to wait for a while before we could go into our rooms. We got in around one and then we showered and changed and relaxed for a while. I was sharing my room with Sarah L. and Samantha. At 5:30 we all met downstairs and went for dinner at a pizza place. It was terrible, especially seeing as the pizzas were all cold. I wanted some proper food, something warm, since I hadn’t had any warm food since Thursday. So, after dinner we went back to the hotel and Daniel and I went up to one of the cafés in the hotel and I got soup and he had some coffee. We then watched a movie that happened to be on TV, and that Daniel had seen before and knew was good. It was called Отец (Father), about a guy returning from the war. After that I went to bed.
Sunday April 27
- had a long excursion through an old-growth forest of some kind, then to a fish hatchery of some special trout. The walk was fun and the hatchery interesting. Between the hike and the fish hatchery we had to go downhill through a very steep path and Mark W., and Daniel were kind enough to help me with it. At the fish hatchery we could feed the fish and when one did the fish jumped up in the air, splashing water on us!
-got back to the hotel and after a break went out to dinner with the whole group at a lovely Georgian resto. Sat next to Mark W. and talked about cooking.
-Once back at the hotel talked to my parents on the phone then watched some episodes of a funny TV show with a bunch of people before going to bed.
Monday April 28
-The group took a hike up Mount Ahun - walking 11 kilometers up and then back again. I came up to join them with Sarah L., and the Russian teachers and staff people with us. We had lunch in a Georgian resto up there.
- We had planned to take a taxi up but I guess there were too many of us to fit in one taxi so we commandeered a marshrutka. I kid you not. We went to a bus stop and when one pulled up with only one person in it, they kicked that person out and paid the driver to take us up to the top of the mountain. Oh Russia!
- Went up to the top of a tower and saw beautiful views of the surrounding area. Then took a bus back down to the hotel. By the place where we got the bus there was a horse and a donkey hanging out. We got one quite funny picture of the donkey licking my hand and me freaking out, LOL.
- back at the hotel some people - Mark W., Nick, Jack, Lindsay, and Genya and I went out to get something to drink on the boardwalk with Jon, then went back to the pizza place for dinner. After dinner I sat with them for a bit then went to be with Bethany, Sarah L., and Daniel, who were playing Farkel again.
Tuesday April 29
- We took an excursion to a tea plantation, where first we had how tea is grown explained to us by a very enthusiastic tour guide - incidentally named Clara. She was nice and gave good information, but her way of dealing with foreigners was to act as though we were small children and I kept waiting her to say, “Now kids, take out your crayons…” LOL.
- after the presentation we went upstairs to get tea and pastries (poppy-seed rolls yay!) and heard a folk group do a sort of song and dance show. It was really fun. They did lots of songs I knew and brought up some people from the group to dance with them, including Kristy and Nick. There was one guy playing on the accordion - he had about ten of them, some of them were large and some were tiny and made an adorably hilarious high-pitched sound. After the show we got to buy some souvenirs.
-on the bus back - as well as up, I sat with Zhenya. (He’s spelling it this way in English so I suppose I should, too.) We had nice conversations and it was fun.
-once back at the hotel I got to read Daniel’s term paper - he wound up basically translating it for me. Was very interesting. Demystifying, I guess, in a way.
-went for a walk on the boardwalk in the light, warm rain which was very nice. Was wearing my sarafan and I think some people commented on it. There I ran into Samantha, Mark M., Alex, and Misha. We ended up getting dinner at a so-so place up by Patterson’s. It cracks me up that there is a supermarket called Patterson’s in Russia. I assume that it is an import? From where…?
Wednesday April 30
- The group was to take another hike over a mountain and I’d planned to come along but as it was really rainy, wet, and slick out everyone though it better if I didn’t come along, so I came up later in a taxi (a real one this time) with Jon’s wife, Olya. Walked up to see a small waterfall. Thought that if this was the fall that the group was going to see they were in for a disappointment, but it turns out that there were more impressive ones further up…
-waited for about 2 hours as Jon had forgotten how long the hike would take. Listened to my ipod out in nature, which was nice. Actually I am listening to my ipod now - I’m on the plane going to New York for Ruth’s wedding, so I’ll tell you what songs I’m listening to as I type. Right now it is “Polka Plin” from Yvonnick’s Breton CD.
- people finally showed up and we got a late lunch at yet another Georgian place - we sat at open-air booths and a kitty came along to sit with us, LOL. Sat with Daniel and Zhenya and talked about linguistics, LOL. After lunch took a marshrutka back to the hotel. (Song is “Esse” from L’Arcusgi di Pasquale.)
-spent a very fun evening watching the sun set over the beach behind the hotel. We dipped our feet into the Black Sea - it was too cold to swim, but Serioja did anyhow - and at one point we danced on the boardwalk to music from Seroija’s phone, LOL. Later I picked up trash on the beach - was my good deed of the day, LOL. After the sun finally set (around 9 pm!) Daniel, Zhenya, and I got dinner at this place that it seemed everyone had gone to at least once except for us, « Belie Nochi, » white nights. It was a very good resto - we tried khinkali - a sort of big dumpling filled with meat and also some vegetables, like onions or something. We wound up eating there every night for the rest of the trip…!
(Song is “Buenos Aires” from Evita)
Thursday May 1st
-Our excursion was to Krasnaya Polyana, a ski resort that is apparently popular with Putin and the Olympics are going to be held there. We went to the top of the mountain (what mountain, I don’t know… :p) in a series of 4 chair lifts. Rode up with Amanda and had silly discussions.
(Song is “Sans Amour” from Brel’s L’Homme de la Mancha)
-we saw real snow, but not much views from the top, too cloudy, but we took lots of pictures. Got lunch in a café - not at the top but at the third stop? Sat with Amanda and Daniel. Took the chair lifts down and by then it was almost time to leave, though I did pick up some Sochi postcards, finally!
(Song is “Armenak Ghazariani” from Armenia Anthology)
-after this we went to a honey farm. We got to taste some (very foul, as it turned out,) honey wine and liquers, but also some very delicious honey. Bought a jar of eucalyuptus honey.
(Song is now “Russie la Neige ta Recouverte,” from Svetlana’s Chansons Russes)
-Went back to the hotel and pretty soon afterwards went out to see a May 1st concert in which a famous band was supposedly playing, though we never did see them. We did see some performances, including a children’s chorus singing “May There Always be Sunshine,” (which, to be honest, means much more to me than some famous band :p) After this, we went to dinner at Belie Nochi again. “We” were - me, Mark W., Nick, Jack, Lindsay, Daniel, and Zhenya.
(Song is now “Que Reste-t-il” as sung by Rachel Fisher.)
Friday May 2nd
-spent the morning packing up and getting ready to leave our hotel rooms, also feeling out of sorts, a feeling that lasted for about 5 days … 0.0
(Song is now “Epistle” from the Vision of Escaflowne soundtrack. My ipod is so random today!)
-spent most of the day with Samantha et al. Got lunch with them (the two of us, plus Mark M., Misha, and Alex) in the Georgian place we’d gone to with the group the 2nd night. Then spent some time wandering around with Samantha, visiting the town market and singing every song we knew, including a lot of stupid children’s songs like “Little Rabbit Foo Foo,” (I kid you not…!)
(Song is “Val’ d’Hiv’” by Yves Montand.)
Eventually I went up to Patterson’s to buy food for the train ride home. Later, we had dinner with Jon and what seemed like half the group. We caught the train at 10:30. In my compartment was also Daniel, Mark M., and Samantha. We talked for a bit once in the train but went to sleep soon enough. The train was old and dirty. The train down to Sochi made us think that taking a train for 2 days wouldn’t be so bad - but this train wasn’t nearly as nice!
Saturday May 3rd and Sunday May 4th -
(song is “Flowers Never Bend with the Rainfall” by Simon and Garfunkel.)
What is there to say about the ride? As I told someone later, a 37-train ride is a lot like a 2-hour train ride, only it’s 2 hours and then another 2 hours, then another 2 hours… We hung out, talked, and waited. Mostly waited. I am understanding the depiction of eternity as a train ride in those Harry Potter fanfics. The only thing worth noting is that May 3rd was Daniel’s 21st birthday, so I gave him his present, which he liked.
(song is “Ludivine: Le temps d’amours, le temps des secrets”)
(and now « Shtille di Nacht » from Pete Seeger’s Strangers and Cousins.)
Once we pulled in to Moscow - (to Kurskaya Bokzal this time - confusing much?!) I went home, took a shower and ate some hot soup. I did some homework in the evening but was exhausted and went to bed around 9.
Monday May 5th
Back to school! Not a great day, all things considered. We had “OPI testing” (testing our level of spoken Russian) and mine made me miss lunch. Had an argument with Mark W. about Israel that I don’t really need to go into. Ended up eating lunch in phonetics. Galina Mikhailovna is a wonderful person and I’m sorry I ever complained about her coming to Sochi with us, because all in all it was fine. (Although she did make us help her do crossword puzzles in the train - I knew she’d give us impromptu homework ! :p) After school I went home and, for the first time in a while, actually wrote ! (About a page in the Edanin and Kechy thing.)
Tuesday May 6th
Also a normal school day. Had history, grammar, and video. (Song is now “Krasnaya Znamya,” from Marxists.com) Isolda Dmitrievna, our grammar prof, was out sick so we did an excercise then were free for most of the class. After school I went to Ohotny Ryad for what I expected to be the last time. There I picked up the red version of the blue Etam shirt I’d gotten a while back and also some gifts for Samantha and Sveta. Then I went home.
(Song is now “The Happy Pioneer” from the Best of Communism.)
Wednesday May 7th - This Journal’s Fourth Birthday!
I had my famous Russian test, the one that is supposed to give me an objective assessment of my level. Whether I passed - because it has levels you have to pass and as I only had one chance to sit the test I opted for the 1st certificate level, the third of six total levels. (Song is “Krakoviyak” from the Effi Netzer Israeli CD.) The test took all day and cost over 5000 rubles. Hoping to find out my score soon. Had to take the test way the hell far away from where I live, at the «World Friendship » university. (Song is Simon and Garfunkel’s “I Am A Rock.”) University was down by Iugo-Zapadnaya metro. I was hoping to get back to school in time to take the group photo but that didn’t work out, so as a result I’m not in the photo L
After that I had some time before we were meeting at a bar up at Barrikadnaya to say goodbye to Nick, who was leaving early. So, I went back to Ohotny Ryad and bought myself a white dress, which was a splurge but worth it, I think. (I got a post card of Ohotny Ryad at one point, by the way - I think it fitting, seeing the amount of time I spent there 0.0)
Met people up at Barrikadnaya around 7 and stayed until ten. Talked with Jack for a while, and Nick, of course. (Song is “Il Pleut Dans Ma Chambre” by Trenet.) Left early-ish because the bar was really smoky and my throat was starting to hurt. Got home and ate some soup - for my throat - before going to bed.
Thursday May 8th - V.E. Day in Western Europe
Regular day of classes. Had grammar test, which Isolda Dmitrievna wasn’t there for, so we got out of grammar early again. After school, we had more ACTR testing, then we went home. I guess that is all to say about this day, LOL.
Friday May 9th - Dyen Pobedi - Victory Day in Russia
(song is “I Want What I Want” by Tatayoung.)
In the morning I watched the parade on Red Square on TV with my host mom. It was the first time since the fall of the USSR that they put real armaments … tanks, nuclear warheads, army planes, etc… into the parade, and it was a bit frightening. After that I was home in the morning, then in the afternoon I met with Tamara, Lara’s cousin, and we went to some parks at Tsaritelno and then Kolomenskaya, where we walked around, seeing bands playing patriotic and folk music, and visiting some churches that date back 500 years or so.
(Song is “Eliyahu” from To Life! Chanukah and Holiday Anthology, which despite the dull title is an awesome CD :p)
I stayed home in the evening. I was feeling a bit sick - I’d caught a cold, probably on the train back from Sochi… 0.0 And I was feeling a bit out of sorts about the whole Dyen Pobedi thing. For one thing, it seems silly to celebrate the end of WWII when the fact that the Allies won doesn’t cancel out all of the suffering that happened during the war. The fact that on May 9th people in Europe enjoyed their first day of peace doesn’t mean that on May 9th ‘44, ’43, ’42, ’41, and ’40 people weren’t suffering and dying.
Russians, like everyone else, it seems, overinflate their own influence in the war. Of course Russians fought bravely, suffered, died… but so did the people in many, many countries. My host mom, reflecting on the war, made some comment, “Oh, the Americans fought in the war, too. Didn’t they do something in Africa?”
I mean, many Americans would claim that the US single-handedly saved the rest of the world, and although the US did many heroic and necessary things during the war I think it is ridiculous to say that nobody else did anything at all! I think that one great thing that happened during the war, if one can speak of great things in such a time, is the cooperation between all of the countries and people who united against fascism. So, it makes me sick when each country, afterwards, insists that they won the war by themselves. I understand that perhaps my host mom doesn’t really know much about what happened in WWII outside of Russia - she didn’t grow up in a society in which information was free for the having, after all, so I can’t blame her, but that doesn’t stop me from feeling disturbed by it.
May 10th - Jenny’s 18th Birthday!
My little sister is a grown-up! Huh! Happy Birthday, Jen!
I went to Ismailovsky in the morning with Samantha, Sarah S., and Samantha’s friend from Vladimir, Tanya. Got some things for myself - another sarafan, which turned out to be too small, but my Mom is trying to alter it into a skirt because she is wonderful like that J. I also got for myself an amber necklace and a small Israeli flag, LOL. Then we went to a café by Kurskaya and ate ice cream.
After that I met some girls from synagogue - Masha and Lena and some other people - at a Shokoladnitsa by Prospekt Mira. That was nice but since there were so many Russians they all spoke together in Russian and I didn’t understand much. L Afterwards I went home. On the way I picked up some gifts for our teachers.
May 11th
I met Zhenya for lunch and then we went to a concert together, a concert of students at the philharmonic, tickets courtesy of my literature teacher. It was really, really nice. The weather was nice and it was so nice to spend time with him. After the concert we went to a café that I’d heard of - Coffee Mania - and shared a slice of cake and some weird but tasty Russian traditional tea, which essentially consisted of hot, sweet water scented with lemon, lime, and mint, all of which were floating around in the cup. Was a lot better than it sounds. I’ll have to try to make it at home sometime.
Went to the metro together, where I was to meet Sveta for the opera, and Zhenya and I said goodbye there. It was sad but sweet - he told me that he was “enchanted by my personality since we met” and that he was sure we’d keep in touch. I wrote him a few days ago and just got a beautiful email back. Anyway, it was hard parting with him and, though I held myself together at first, once we’d gone away from each other I began to cry.
After that the day got a little weird. I went to metro Aleksandrovsky Sad to meet Sveta but she was late, about 20 minutes so. Then, when she came it was only to tell me that at the last minute she’d found out about a meeting at her school that she had to go to that night so she couldn’t go to the opera - but if I didn’t mind her mom could go with me! (I am not sure if this was the right thing to do, whether she should have invited someone in her place or whether she should have told me to invite someone else - does anyone else have any opinion on it?)
Matters were further complicated when it turned out that I had mistakenly decided that the show was going to be at the State Kremlin Palace when, in fact, they were at the New Stage on Theatre Square. (LOL Theatre Square like in Orinda… Teatralnaya Ploshad’ is just a little more impressive!) So, we missed the first 30 minutes but once we got there they let us in right away.
The opera, Nabucco, was very interesting and well done and I enjoyed it despite everything else.
Monday May 12th
This was more or less a normal day of classes. I wore my sarafan again and people liked it - I got lots of nice comments. We had our geography test which was easier than expected but only slightly so. I answered most of the questions, LOL. Then we had Razvetie Rechi, where we also had our test. The discussion was a little stilted, but I think we did well. After that was lunch - I sat with Mark W. and Daniel. Then, we had phonetics, where we had our test, and then literature.
After class I went home, stopping on the way to buy a cake for my host family. At home we had a special dinner - we ate plov and some different salads, with my cake for dessert. We drank sparkling water (I’d bought it in Sochi for the train but never used it) and also cognac. I had never tried it before and hope never to try it again 0.0 The taste isn’t bad but it made me ill. We took lots of photos. I went to bed not long after dinner was over.
Tuesday May 13th - Samantha’s birthday!
This was our last day of school. We had history, where we got our essays back and our grades (mine was 5, A.) Then we had grammar, where we looked over our tests and corrected them to improve our score. Corrected, I had 10/11. Then, Isolda Dmitrievna talked to us for a while - only Sarah L. and I were there at this time, she talked to us and gave us her impressions of us and her hopes for our futures, which, for some reason, turned into a diatribe against Sarah L. and her reserved nature. Poor Sarah!
After that we had lunch - sat with Daniel and Jack and Mark W., and after lunch we had video, where we watched a trippy movie called Zerkalo, The Mirror. Then we had a meeting, and then a graduation ceremony, where we all got little diplomas from Moscow International University. The rector of the university came and gave them out and it was funny because I suppose it should be an honor that he takes an interest in our program but nobody had ever seen him before and I, at least, was kind of like who is this guy congratulating us on our progress when he has no idea who we are?
Anyhow, eventually we had the farewell dinner, which was fine, and then afterwards Sarah L., Bethany, Daniel, Mark W., and I went out for coffee at Coffee Bean, which was a lot more fun.
Wednesday May 14th
After breakfast at home I left and met Daniel at Tverskaya, where we had a coffee/early lunch, again at Coffee Bean. We had a nice discussion. We went back to school by noon for more ACTR testing, which ended around 2. Then, I went home and finished packing. Left from my host family’s around 7, as it turned out, and got to school at almost 8. Shared a room with Laura, randomly enough. Spent the evening hanging out with people - got Samantha, Sarah L., and Daniel to sign my pillowcase. Went to bed around 11.
Thursday May 15th
Was really, really long. We left for Moscow Domedovo airport at 3 AM Moscow time and I arrived home in Orinda at 8:30 PM California time. There’s not much to say about the day, other than we had good moments hanging out for the last time - Daniel made up some fantasist thing about Misha being the president of planet Hansa sending illegal (space) aliens to Russia, and Samantha had me take pictures of her wearing the scarf I got her like the veil of a belly dancer, LOL. We all said goodbye at Dullas and I cried a lot. I got on the earlier flight and my parents met me at Oakland airport. Took me home, where I had dinner and then fell asleep.
Friday May 16th
In the morning I unpacked at home. Mom and I ran some errands and got lunch out then stopped by Gram and Papa’s for a few minutes before driving in to San Francisco to pick up my new hearing aid! We got it fitted - was uneventful. Then we drove home. After a little while Dad came home and we went out to Amarin. Came home and I literally forced myself to stay up until 10 pm.
Saturday May 17th
Spent most of the day doing laundry at home, though for a bit in the early afternoon I went out grocery shopping with my parents. In the evening we went to a play at Berkeley Rep, Figaro, a retelling of Mozart’s The Marriage of Figaro put into its historical context of the French Revolution. About half of it was from the opera and sung through, and half was new. It was very interesting and well done. I managed to stay up until 12:30!
Sunday May 18th
Worked at home on unpacking and getting things together for most of the day. In the evening Mom, Dad, and I went over for dinner at Gram and Papa’s, which was very nice. I love their Rossmoor place. I think it is gorgeous. Papa played the piano for me, which always makes me happy, and I made some more recordings, this time on the voice recorder.
Monday May 19th
Today Mom and I ran errands and then at home in the afternoon I worked on the last of the laundry, learning how to use a steamer to get wrinkles out of clothing. I also talked to a bunch of people online.
Tuesday May 20th
… Same, really. Worked on things around the house and then went to run some errands.
Wednesday May 21st
In the morning I had a dentist appointment, then I went over in the afternoon to spend time at Gram and Papa’s, which was nice. In the late afternoon we went out to Barnes and Noble to get some books - I got some Dostoevsky (The Idiot and some short stories,) two by Doctorow, one thing by Bulgakov, and an anthology of short stories by women writers. Interesting…
And that’s where I’ll leave the entry. Right now it is Friday and I’m in New York, but I’ll update again once I get home. That’s all for now!